?Democratic particle motion for meta-basin transitions in simple glass-formers?

G.A. APPIGNANESI, J.A.RODRíGUEZ FRIS, R.A. MONTANI AND W. KOB

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS

Americna Physical Society

Lugar: New York; Año: 2006 vol. 96 p. 57801 - 57803

0031-9007

We use molecular dynamics computer simulations to investigate the local motion of the particles in a supercooled binary liquid. Using the concept of the distance matrix, we find that the á relaxation corresponds to a small number of crossings from one metabasin to a neighboring one. Each crossing is very rapid and involves the collective motion of O(40) particles that form a relatively compact cluster, whereas stringlike motions seem not to be relevant for these transitions. These compact clusters are thus potential candidates for the cooperatively rearranging regions proposed a long time ago by Adam and Gibbs.